Thursday, March 28, 2013

Over the past couple months, Logan Square's very own late-night regret factory the Owl has been getting into the rock venue scene, booking bands to play free shows in the bar. This Sunday, you can celebrate Easter there with Obnox, the solo project of Cleveland's Lamont "Bim" Thomas, along with locals Ono and Running.

Bim's been kicking around the Cleveland punk rock scene for years as the groovy backbeat of Bassholes, This Moment in Black History, Unholy Two, and Puffy Areolas. In 2011 he debuted his Obnox project with I'm Bleeding Now, a blown-out-as-hell LP that channeled punk fury, soulful crooning, and pop sensibility into a totally fun, weird LP that was one of my favorite records of that year. He followed that up with a nonstop stream of excellent releases, including Rojo on Chicago's Permanent Records and an upcoming EP on Slovenly called Canabible of Ohio. All of Bim's Obnox releases are highly recommended, and his constant output is hard to keep track of, so I'd suggest just grabbing whatever you come across. His Soundcloud is a great source for his music too—he updates it all the time with new, excellent recordings.

On recordings Obnox is a multilayered beast, but live, Bim strips it down to a two-piece, with him on guitar backed by a drummer. It's interesting and great to hear his usually lush songs with such a minimal setup. The show starts at 9:30 PM.

Here's a great track titled "Raindrops" that recently went up on the Obnox Soundcloud. It kind of sums up the project's sound: big, weird, and catchy as all hell.

Many in the media are blaming Bernie Sanders's harsh tone for the mass shooting in Virginia this week. But there was no violent rhetoric at the former presidential candidate's recent summit in Chicago.